The invention relates to a motor vehicle with a storage for electric energy for example for providing electric energy for an electric motor in an electric vehicle or hybrid vehicle.
Inquiries pursued by experts in the field of electric vehicles involve how to charge a storage for electric energy. Besides the conventional approach of supplying electric energy via a charging cable, it is considered to supply electric energy inductively, i.e., in particular via a magnetic field. Inductively coupling electric energy into a motor vehicle from outside would have the advantage that because no charging cable is required, safety measures associated with the charging cable, in particular a complex control of how to initiate and complete the charging process, are not needed to prevent a person coming into contact with the high voltage.
It was previously contemplated for a motor vehicle into which electric energy is to be induced to have a receiver coil on its underside and to embed a transmitter coil in the ground so that the motor vehicle can simply drive up to a corresponding site on the ground so that the energy can be transferred from the transmitter coil into the receiver coil.
The problem appeared to be that the underside of the motor vehicle is particularly sensitive against damage. Thick metal walls for protecting the coils are inadequate because such metal walls shield the magnetic field via which the electric energy is to be coupled in. On the other hand nonmetallic material used on the underside of the motor vehicle can be easily damaged and may result in a hazard for persons, especially for example during the charging process.
The subject matter of DE 4445 999A1 and DE 100 31 406A1 is the recognition of accidents (crashes) of a motor vehicle. It is proposed to arrange optical waveguides in an expected deformation region of the motor vehicle at a vehicle body part. A light source emits its light into an end of the optical waveguide and at another end of the optical waveguide an optic-electric converter receives the exiting light and outputs an electric measuring value which is a measure of the intensity of the received light. When a crash occurs in a region of the corresponding vehicle body part, the optic-electric converter no longer receives the light emitted by the light source so that the crash is recognized. In this case for example an airbag is triggered or another safety measure is taken.